Library filed under Noise

This letter by acoustician, Ray Tumney, addresses a consistent resistance by the Australian Acoustical Society to address the problem of wind turbine noise emissions. A portion of his letter is provided below. The entire letter can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. Mr. Tumney's letter supports comments by acoustician Stephen Cooper's document on this issue (http://www.windaction.org/documents/35844 ).

The neighbors, who say the turbine is hurting their health, announced earlier this week they would hire an acoustical engineer to test the noise levels of the turbine. They want their study to be performed on the same nights as the study conducted by Tech Environmental, the firm picked by the health board to study the turbine.

"We are not sleeping. We are suffering the adverse effects of shadow flicker. One of the members of the board of health at the October meeting brought forth the issue that we suspend the operation of the industrial wind turbine during night time hours, until we can complete the study. ...we're imploring the town to suspend the operation," Kelly said.

A second study of the effects of the Scituate Wind turbine has been planned. ...the Community Group decided to conduct its own study “given the inadequate scope of the study supported by the board of health.”

Audiologist Dr. Jerry Punch (Ph.D) released this critique of a paper published in Health Psychology where Dr. Punch takes issue with the authors' study methodology and conclusion that human health responses to wind turbine infrasound emissions are psychosomatic symptoms resulting from the anticipation that the sound will be harmful.

The local authority is set to publish new stricter guidance to ensure that wind farms, solar panels, heat pumps and other energy-saving technologies which could come forward in the forseeable future are built in the right place and cause minimum disruption.

Five years ago Krogh began researching Wind Turbine Syndrome and reaching out to other people who have become ill. She said their symptoms are caused by wind turbine noise, including audible noise and inaudible infrasound. In many cases, it's the noise and vibrations that keep people up at night, taking a serious toll on their health.

Middle-school student Brian Reilly says he can't play basketball on Leland Road when the strobing effect from the Kingston Wind Independence (KWI) Turbine's shadow flicker is at full throttle. "I get a wicked bad headache so I have to go inside," Brian told the Journal as he stood on the front steps of his neighbors house.

At last week's annual town meeting, Steve Therrien submitted a letter to the Sheffield Select Board, stating: "As we see it the town is benefiting at our expense. Our home has become toxic and uninhabitable. The town needs to do the right thing to take care of the residents impacted."

Michael Creech had planned to retire at the family homestead, a two-story farmhouse among square miles of farmland east of Hope in western Vermilion County. But he said he's changed his mind ...mostly because of the noise. There are three different noises, a whooshing sound from the blades turning, a droning noise that he compares to a jet engine, and noise from the motors when the turbines change position.

Vestas recommends relative noise limits that take into account local background noise levels (where new wind turbines are sited near existing ones, already present turbine noise should not be calculated as part of the background noise).

"We are encouraged to see that the Court will not be a rubber stamp for DEP decisions on wind power. This is a decision that FMM finds helpful because the Court addresses the health and environmental impacts of wind power projects."

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